Creamy Dairy Free Clam Chowder (New England Style)

Name: Dairy Free Clam Chowder
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 4 slices of bacon (sugar-free, uncured, diced); 1 onion (diced); 2 tablespoons arrowroot starch; 1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes (peeled, diced); 2 cups chicken stock; 2 cups clam juice; 1 cup raw cashews; 1 cup coconut milk (full fat); 2 cups clams (chopped); 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon black pepper; fresh parsley (chopped for garnish); oyster crackers

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This Creamy Dairy Free Clam Chowder is made in the Instant Pot in only 10 minutes! If you are a fan of creamy, hearty chowders but follow a dairy-free diet, this recipe will become a new favorite!

Clam chowder inside of a soup bowl sitting on a medium sized plate with two spoons.

Today, I am going to show you how to make the classic New England Style Clam Chowder.

You will see a lot of recipes out there with celery, carrots, and all types of veggies. That's not the traditional way! Clam Chowder contains clams, bacon, potatoes, and cream as the main ingredients.

Since this is a dairy-free version, it's not 100 percent accurate. You can easily swap out my coconut-cashew cream for milk and heavy cream.

We use the Instant Pot to make this dairy free clam chowder, but you can use a Dutch-Oven, or crockpot. I will include stovetop instructions in this post for you to follow along.

A good clam chowder should be a medium thickness, not too thick and not too thin. However, you can easily make adjustments by adding more or less arrowroot powder.

Clam chowder is filling and can be enjoyed as a main dish like our Easy One-Pot Salmon Stew or served with a fall side dish like the Air Fryer Smashed Brussels Sprouts.

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⭐️ Why You'll Love This Recipe
📝 Ingredient Notes
🥘 Substitutions & Variations
🔪 Step-By-Step Instructions
⏲ Stovetop Instructions
👨🏻‍🍳 Chef Tips
❓Recipe FAQs
🍽 Related Recipes
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments

⭐️ Why You'll Love This Recipe

Instant Pot: This pressure cooker puts homemade clam chowder on your dinner table in just 10 minutes. It's a handy cooking appliance and great for soups like our Instant Pot Deer Chili.
Dairy-Free: We replace milk and heavy cream with a coconut-cashew cream sauce. So easy to make with a high-speed blender. The sauce has the consistency of heavy cream. We use these ingredients in our Vegan Passion Fruit Ice Cream too.
Fabulous Fall/Winter Soup: This soup fills you up on cold fall/winter nights like our Roasted Butternut Squash and Red Pepper Soup does.

📝 Ingredient Notes

Here is a visual overview of the clam chowder ingredients in this recipe. Scroll to the recipe at the bottom for quantities.

Onions, clam juice, coconut milk, bacon, cashews, potato, clams, chicken stock, oyster crackers, parsley, and arrowroot starch.

Clams- If live in an area like San Franciso by Fisherman Warf, or in Seattle by Pikes Place Market I would recommend buying fresh clams. For the rest of us, wild-caught canned clams will do.
Clam Juice - We use bottled clam juice which is the liquid extracted from clams after steaming them.
Chicken Stock - When making any sauces or soups a good quality stock is the difference between a good and bad soup. Learn How To Make Turkey Bone Broth and use it for the broth in this soup.
Cashew Cream Sauce - We blend raw cashews and full-fat coconut milk in a Vitamix for a dairy-free cream.
Potatoes - When making any calm chowder soup potatoes are always used. We decided to go with russet potatoes for the low cost.
Bacon- Cooking bacon adds a nice flavor to the soup and is a classic clam chowder topping. Bacon lovers should try my Sweet Potato Hash with Bacon and Kale.
Arrowroot - I use arrowroot starch in place of corn starch for a gluten-free thickener. If you are searching for a 100 perfect gluten-free clam chowder remove the oyster crackers.
Oyster Crackers - When garnishing my New England Clam Chowder the only way to go is oyster crackers, bacon, and chopped parsley.

🥘 Substitutions & Variations

Coconut Milk - Swap out for almond milk if you don't like the flavor of coconut milk.
Russet Potatoes - The only other potatoes I would recommend using are Yukon Gold Potatoes and Red Skin Potatoes.
Herbs - Parsley, thyme, and chives all work well in this recipe.
Manhattan Clam Chowder: The difference is that the color is red rather than white. Instead of using cream or bone broth, we will use ¼ cup of tomato paste and 1 can of diced tomatoes.
Rhode Island Clam Chowder: This is a clear broth soup from pure clam juice. Remove bone broth and cream from this recipe. Increase the clam juice to 6 cups in volume.
Keto Clam Chowder: Use 2 cups of heavy cream and 2 ounces of cream cheese at the end of cooking. No need for my coconut-cashew cream sauce. Using the saute function, heat the cream and cheese until melted and creamy.
Seafood Chowder: Same concept as calm chowder just add a variety of seafood like shrimp, salmon, oysters, and clams.
Vegan: By removing the clams and turning this soup into a Corn Chowder, you will make it vegan-friendly.

🔪 Step-By-Step Instructions

Cooking chopped bacon inside of an instant pot until crispy, and transfering to a paper towel to drain.

STEP 1. Cook the bacon. Press the saute function on your Instant Pot. Cut bacon into small pieces while the pot heats up. Cook bacon for 5 minutes or until nice and crispy (Image 1). Transfer to a plate lined with a paper towel to drain (Image 2).

Adding arrowroot startch, chicken stock, and clam juice to the Instant Pot and setting the timer for 10 minutes.

STEP 2. Cooking clam chowder. With the saute function still on, add the chopped onion and saute for 5 minutes with the leftover bacon fat. Add in arrowroot starch and cook for a couple of minutes (Image 3).

Add diced potatoes, chicken stock (Image 4), and clam juice (Image 5). Secure the Instant Pot lid and set it to pressure cook on HI for 10 minutes (Image 6).

Pouring coconut milk on top of cashews in a vitamix blender.

STEP 3. Making the cashew cream sauce. While the calm chowder is cooking, let's make the coconut cashew sauce. In a blender, add raw cashews and full-fat coconut milk (Image 7). Blend on high speed for 1 minute or until silky smooth (Image 8).

Straining a can of calms into a fine-mesh strainer and adding it to clam chowder inside of an Instant Pot.

STEP 4. Adding the clam and thickening the soup. Drain the cans of clams into a fine mesh strainer (Image 9). When the 10 minutes are up, do a manual release the steam. Open the lid and add in your dairy-free cream sauce and canned clams (Image 10).

I like to turn the saute function on and let the soup come to a simmer to reach its full thickness. This will take 3-5 minutes (Image 11). Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with parsley, oyster crackers, and bacon bits (Image 12).

⏲ Stovetop Instructions

If you don't have an Instant Pot you can make this recipe in a Dutch Oven on your stove. Let me show you how!

Cook the bacon. Over medium heat, add in your chopped bacon and cook for 5 minutes or until nice and crispy. Transfer bacon to a plate lined with a paper towel to drain.
Making the roux. Cook chopped onions in the bacon fat for 5 minutes over medium-low heat. Add in arrowroot starch and cook for another couple of minutes to create a roux.
Cooking the potatoes. Add diced potatoes, chicken stock, and clam juice to the Dutch oven. Bring liquid to a simmer and cook for 20-25 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
Dairy-Free Cream. While soup is cooking, blend cashews and coconut milk together in the Vitamix until creamy.
Adding Clams. Pour cashew cream into the soup with clams and cook for an additional 5 minutes or until the soup is nice and thick.
Garnishing. Ladle clam chowder into a soup bowl and garnish with bacon bits, parsley, and oyster crackers.

👨🏻‍🍳 Chef Tips

Don't cut potatoes too small. I know a lot of clam chowder recipes call from small diced potatoes. Not here, because I like texture! If potatoes are cut too small, they will disappear like they were never there. I like medium-large dice so you can see the potatoes with every bite.
Use a high-speed blender. You want to make sure the coconut-cashew sauce is velvety smooth. I recommend using a Vitamix or Blendtec for the best results.
Add the clams at the end of the cooking process. You want the clams to taste soft and tender. The residual heat of the soup will cook the clams.

Instant pot clam chowder inside of two soup bowls with oyster crackers.

❓Recipe FAQs

What kind of potatoes are the best for clam chowder?

Russet potatoes are known for their high starch content and low moisture content. When added to soups, they break down and help thicken the soup.

Can you freeze clam chowder?

Yes, freezing clam chowder is a great way to meal prep this soup and save it for later! Cool soup down to room temperature and transfer to an airtight container or freezer bag. You can store clam chowder for 4-6 months in the freezer.

How do you thicken clam chowder?

There are multiple methods for thickening clam chowder. One approach involves creating a roux by combining equal parts of butter (fat) and flour to add thickness to your soup. Alternatively, you can puree approximately one-third of the clam chowder, allowing the natural starch from the potatoes to serve as a thickening agent.

Is clam chowder dairy-free?

New England Clam Chowder is a milk or cream-based chowder. In a blender, combine 1 cup of cashews and 1 cup of coconut milk for a dairy-free base.

How do you make clam chowder from fresh clams instead of canned clams?

To clean the clams, soak them in salt water to remove any dirt and sand. Next, take a large sauté pan, add 1 cup of water, and cover it with a lid. Cook the clams for 5-10 minutes, or until they open up. Once they've opened, remove the cooked clams from their shells and add them to your clam chowder.